Queen In Hyun’s Man is about a man from the Joseon era who gets transported to present day Seoul and falls for an actress there. Using his knowledge of the future, he begins to change the past, but with that comes unexpected consequences.
Queen In Hyun’s Man is a drama I have been looking forward to checking out for a long time. It’s one of those dramas that has remained extremely popular among fans, and pretty much everything you read about it is extremely positive.
Now I did actually like the drama and found it to be an enjoyable experience, but I just didn’t love it. I never got attached to the story or the characters. And as of writing this, I just still can’t figure out what everyone else in dramaland saw in this drama that made it so beloved. But let’s look at some of the good stuff first.
Ji Hyun Woo is pretty adorable as our leading man Kim Boong Do. He’s about as nice a guy as you could hope to have with this boyish smile that just made him very charming. He goes through a whole lot to be with his girl, and it’s easy to see why she would so easily fall for such a great guy.
Yoo In Na is also wonderful as our leading lady Choi Hee Jin. She’s animated and full of spunk with a gorgeous smile to make Boong Do fall for her. I’ve been wanting to see Yoo In Na in a leading role for a very long time, and she didn’t disappoint.
Boong Do and Hee Jin as a couple are about as cute as can be. They have amazing chemistry pretty much right from the get go. There are an abundance sweet couple moments and playful fun. Fans will also like the “real” kisses between this lovely pair. They have to be the main reason that so many drama fans are crazy in love with this drama.
I also really like the second male lead Dong Min (Kim Jin Woo). He’s immature and completely full of himself, but I found him quite hilarious with a charm of his own. He was very entertaining for most of the drama, but I didn’t love the direction his character goes in towards the end.
This drama has an excellent soundtrack too! I think that’s what made a lot of the slower parts more enjoyable. I just loved the mix of traditional and modern music featuring the gayegeum. So beautiful!
Now onto some of my issues with the drama. I’ve had a hard time really putting my finger on why I didn’t love it, but I’ll try. First a minor one, I was really disappointed that Boong Do adapted to coming to the future so quickly.
One of my favorite things about time travel dramas is watching someone have to adjust to their surroundings, preferably in a humorous way. But Boong Do is about as calm and collected as they come. There were a few funnies, but for the most part, he got accustomed to the modern setting relatively easily.
Now a bigger issue was that it really was a slow cooker for me. It took about 6 episodes for me to even start feeling the drama at all. Not that it was bad up until that point, just slow. Things slowly improved from this point on with each episode getting a little bit better, but even then it just never felt like much was going on with the story.
I’ve also learned that apparently I prefer modern dramas from this writer. I loved Nine: Nine Time Travels a lot. I disliked Three Musketeers. And concerning Queen In Hyun’s Man, I didn’t care much for the Joseon era scenes and much preferred the modern setting. In both cases, the Joseon settings just lacked intensity for me.
And because the drama was set in two time periods, I was never able to really settle in to either time period. Neither of them felt completely fleshed out. Another consequence of this issue was that I didn’t feel the main couple had enough screen time together because of the separation. Any time they are together is completely golden, but especially in the first half of the drama, they spend so much time apart.
The only other drama I have really had a similar experience with was Mask. That one also took a while to get into it and each episode got just a little bit better than the previous. By the last few episodes, I was really enjoying it. But I never really connected with the characters in Mask. Same in Queen In Hyun’s Man. Which I still find odd since I loved the couple both separately and together. Mostly I think it was because there just wan’t enough story to make me invested until the end, but that connection did finally emerge.
SPOILERS BELOW
So now onto the awesome last four episodes! They were the best of the bunch by far. I felt like there was a lot more story and the intensity really ramped up as Boong Do and Hee Jin have to deal with a lot of heartache and life and death stakes.
They deal with some difficult separations with Boong Do getting stuck in the past. And when he is finally able to return, they seem to get their happy ending. But then he is ripped away again in a very emotional scene that leaves Hee Jin completely devastated.
Then he makes the decision to destroy the time traveling protection talisman in hopes that Hee Jin will forget about him and be able to live a happy life. Such a moving and heartbreaking scene.
Hee Jin does forget about him, but is left empty. Boong Do still remembers and watches as his life falls apart around him. Things become so bad that he even decides to end his own life.
But despite her mind not remembering Boong Do, Hee Jin’s heart does. And that eventually allows her to recover her memories and reach out to Boong Do. Fate also intervenes allowing her phone call to him to cross time and reach him in the past.
That one phone call saves his life and ends up pulling him back to the future permanently. The two reunite in an emotional reunion and finally get their true happy ending. Now that’s the kind of stuff I love!
So overall, I enjoyed Queen In Hyun’s Man quite well. While I didn’t fall in love with it like most of dramaland, it was a really great watch. Yes, it had some issues for me, but it also had a lot going for it. The main couple was as adorable as can be with both Ji Hyun Woo and Yoo In Na each bringing their own individual charisma to the drama. They really brought this drama to life and especially gave me a very memorable and impactful ending that really highlighted this love story.
My Rating: 7/10
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